House Negro
House Negro (also House Nigger) is a pejorative term for a black person, used to compare someone to a house slave of a slave owner from the historic period of legal slavery in the US. The term comes from a speech, Message to the Grass Roots, given by African American activist Malcolm X, where he explains that during slavery, there were two kinds of slaves: "house Negroes," who worked in the master's house and "field Negroes," who performed the manual labor outside. He characterizes the house Negro as having a better life than the field Negro, and thus unwilling to leave the plantation, and potentially more likely to support existing power structures that favor whites over blacks. Malcolm X identified with the field Negro. The term is used against individuals[1][2], in critiques of attitudes within the African American community,[3] and as a borrowed term for critiquing parallel situations.[4]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Obama a 'house negro', says Al-Qaeda" Sydney Morning Herald, November 21, 2008
- ^ "Black Group Condemns Cartoonist for Racist Strip About Condoleezza Rice," Project 21 press release, July 19, 2004
- ^ "The Bridge: In the House", from the blog of Darryl James, author of "Bridging The Black Gender Gap"
- ^ "The Secretary: Capitalism's House Nigger," Kathi Roche, from the Women's Liberation Movement on-line archival collection, Special Collections Library, Duke University
[edit] Further reading
Malcolm X Speaks, George Breitman, ed. (New York: Grove Weidenfeld Publishers, 1990). ISBN 0-8021-3213-8
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